2020-07-29
Deuteronomy 28:2 NIV
God loves to bless us because He loves us. The Bible says that we should praise God ‘who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ’ (Ephesians 1:3 NIV). But sometimes His blessing is conditional. That means we have to obey His commands before we receive the blessing. Moses gave the Israelites a list of the ways God was going to bless them (you can read that in Deuteronomy 28:3-13). But this list was preceded by these words: ‘All these blessings will come on you and accompany you if you obey the LORD your God.’ The word ‘if’ is really important here. It shows that the Israelites would only get the blessings if they obeyed God. It also shows that they had a choice. When we choose to obey God, we open ourselves up to receive more of His blessings. How much do we desire God’s blessings? How willing are we to obey His commands? Sometimes we can expect blessings without putting any effort in, but it’s clear that obedience is necessary. So how do we know what God wants us to do? We need to be spending time reading the Bible. We need to be listening to what He’s saying to us, and then acting on it. When Jonah heard God’s call, He ran the opposite way. Obedience means we follow God wherever He’s calling us, even when it seems challenging or we doubt ourselves. But we need to remember that obedience comes gradually. As humans we often desire to do our own thing and we can struggle to surrender our whole lives over to God. When we ask God to help us humble ourselves and obey Him, He’ll gradually transform us to live godly, obedient, and blessing-filled lives.
Acts 24-26; Luke 10:1-12; Ps 78:9-16; Prov 16:25
2020-07-28
2 Corinthians 5:21 NIV
Ever felt like you had to earn God’s love and approval? That you had to be good enough, or even perfect, to be called His child? The truth is, however many mistakes we’ve made, or are going to make in the future, we’re seen as righteous by God. Jesus never sinned, but because He took all our sin and shame when He died on the cross, we now have the opportunity to experience God and eternal life. The Bible says: ‘God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.’ God sees us through the lens of Jesus, who is truly righteous. When He sees us, He sees righteousness. How amazing is that? That doesn’t mean that we should stop trying to become more like Jesus, or stop confessing our sin to Him. We still need to ask for His forgiveness and help in becoming more like Him. The closer we get to God, the further we’ll want to run from a life of sin. It also doesn’t mean that we’ll never experience the feeling of guilt. Guilt helps us to realise that we’ve done something which we need to take to God. We can never be perfect. We’ll never escape sin while we’re here on earth. And God knew that we’d never be able to make ourselves righteous, that’s why He did it this way. The Bible says: ‘”He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed”‘ (1 Peter 2:24 NIV). God sees us clothed in the righteousness of Christ, therefore we’re always loved and accepted by Him.
Acts 22-23; Luke 9:57-62; Ps 78:1-8; Prov 16:23-24
2020-07-27
Proverbs 11:3 NIV
After leading Israel for forty years, the prophet Samuel didn’t get a retirement party and a present. Instead he received praise from the people: ‘You have not cheated or oppressed us’ (1 Samuel 12:4 NIV). He led them, instructed them, and blessed them, but he didn’t take advantage of them. He was a man of integrity. He had values, and he stuck to them. We also need to make sure we have values. Knowing what matters and what we truly value is key to living a life of meaning and purpose. For most of us the problem isn’t having values, the problem is living them out. We all value honesty, integrity, and forgiveness, but do we really live them out – especially when it costs us? Pursuing a life of values and integrity comes with a price. It can be hard to go against culture, and live with integrity. But it does allow us to relax and be ourselves. Cheating, lying, and being different people in different situations is draining. It can exhaust us as we’re trying to remember how we’re supposed to act with each person we encounter, and what we’ve told to each person in the past. When we live a life of integrity, we don’t have to worry about these things. The Bible says: ‘The integrity of the upright guides them, but the unfaithful are destroyed by their duplicity.’ To have integrity means we are one person. We don’t change who we are based on who we’re with or where we are. We should be aiming to live a godly life, and develop a godly character, in all situations.
Acts 20-21; Luke 9:46-56; Ps 46; Prov 16:20-22
2020-07-26
Psalm 46:10 NIV
Psalm 46:10 is a verse which is often quoted. But when we hear a verse a lot, it can sometimes lose its meaning for us. So let’s take a look at it in detail: 1) ‘Be still.’ We can find being still really challenging, especially as our culture tells us that to be worth something we need to be busy. It can be hard to experience moments of stillness and silence with all the distractions we face today. Our to-do lists seem to just keep growing, and people can make more and more demands on our time. But God wants us to take time to ‘be still.’ This isn’t an excuse for us to be lazy; it’s a way of recognising that we need God’s help and guidance in our lives. Being still means surrendering to Him by slowing down and waiting. We need to ask Him to reveal His will; then ‘be still,’ and trust that He knows what He’s doing. 2) ‘Know that I am God.’ This means acknowledging that we’re not God. When we don’t obey God, consult Him, or accept His timing, we remove Him from the throne of our lives and end up trying to take His place. In Psalm 46:10, God goes on to say: ‘I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.’ God wants us to acknowledge who He is, and put Him first in our lives. It’s important for us to have vision and goals for the future, but these should be God-given goals. When we don’t stop and acknowledge that God’s in charge, we can find ourselves being distracted by lots of different things which aren’t actually His will for us. Will you ‘be still’ and know that He’s God today?
Gen 39:1-39; Gen 45:1-13; Gen 50:22-26
2020-07-25
Matthew 26:41 NIV
Jesus told His disciples, ‘Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.’ Jesus didn’t doubt the disciples’ love for Him or their willingness to serve Him, but He knew they couldn’t do it in their own strength. Without the power of the Holy Spirit within us, we’re not able to overcome the temptations that come our way. We’ll never be exempt from temptation. In fact, becoming a Christian increases the frequency, variety, and intensity of the temptations we face, because the enemy doesn’t give up easily. But we don’t have to ‘fall into’ temptation. The moment it comes along, and before we have time to give in to it, we need to turn to God’s grace. Jesus said, ‘Watch and pray.’ And that’s exactly what we need to do too. We need to be alert so that we’re aware of the areas of our lives where we’re likely to be tempted, and we need to pray for the strength to overcome any temptation we’re facing. If we’ve given in to temptation before, we don’t need to let shame overtake our lives. We can confess it to God, ask for His forgiveness, and then strengthen ourselves so that we avoid giving in to temptation again. When Jesus said these words to the disciples, they had repeatedly given in to the temptation to sleep when Jesus needed them to stay awake and keep watch. Jesus didn’t disown or condemn the disciples, instead He encouraged them and gave them advice. Let’s not write ourselves off just because we’ve given in to temptation before. Let’s allow God to remove our shame and strengthen us ready to face future temptations.
Acts 18-19; Luke 9:37-45; Ps 42:6-11; Prov 16:17-19
2020-07-24
Lamentations 3:25 NLT
Do you feel like you’ve reached your breaking point? Has everything fallen apart around you? When we feel like that, we have two options. We can either give up or we can walk towards breakthrough. We can either turn against God because we serve Him and don’t understand why He’s allowing it, or turn to Him for strength and understanding. David said: ‘Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD’ (Psalm 27:14 NIV). We can be tempted to try and fix all our problems ourselves, but that can actually make our problems worse. We need to turn to God and wait for Him to give us what we need. Sometimes God changes our circumstances; other times He uses them to strengthen us. Also, God wants to reach other people through us. The Bible says: ‘He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others’ (2 Corinthians 1:4 NLT). When we’ve been through trials and experienced God’s help and comfort, we’re in a great position to help and comfort others. We can even help them to turn to God themselves. It’s important to remember that nothing we go through is a surprise to God, and nothing’s too hard for Him to handle. The situation we’re in right now can be a way that He shows His love and care for us. In Lamentations, it says: ‘The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning. I say to myself, “The Lord is my inheritance; therefore I will hope in him!” The Lord is good to those who depend on him’ (Lamentations 3:22-25 NLT). So let’s turn to God and depend on Him today.
Acts 16-17; Luke 9:28-36; Ps 42:1-5; Prov 16:16
